1. If Mentak player has racial tech that allows him to take 2TG per battle, does he still get them if he playes "Skilled Retreat" AC?
2. If both sides are destroyed either in space battle or invasion combat, can the defender claim victory? FAQ page 10 makes it clear for space battle, but in invasion combat you could have a PDS and a dock remaining on the planet.
3. An action card is played that places a destroyed ship on that card and returns it to a system with a space dock during status phase, but that dock is blockaded. What happens to the ship?

Thank you.

I think I can answer 2… If the defender retains control of the planet they have "won" the combat.

I base this on the "Invaion Sucess?" section on page 18 of the TI rule book.

Kouteki said:

To my understanding:

1) The Mentak player does get the 2TG, even if retreating, including the "Skilled Retreat" AC.

Imagine a hit and run-attack, where the pirates just ****** the goods they need, and then make a run for it. They _do not_ want to fight out completely. They're not out for dominance with their little ships against large armadas. Those would just be suicide runs, and honestly: Who would get the scavenged and stolen goods back home?

Mentak receives the 2TG for every Space Battle they are involved in. Meaning: Every Space Battle that has been initiated.

The "Skilled Retreat" AC has to be played "Before any round of a Space Battle", making it a pre-combat AC. In Pre-combat effects like Anti-Fighter Barrages, Assault Cannons and the Mentak Racial Ability (2 AssCans-shots for Destroyers/Cruisers) can be used as well. Depending if you're the attacking or defending player you really might want to use one of the other before or after the other effects.

If you're Mentak, you probably want to fire your Racial. If you're not and you're defending (allowing you to choose the order of pre-combat abilities), you have the choice to call the AC before the Mentak Racial Cannons, and instantly retreated.

But the Space Battle itself still has taken place, even if there wasn't a combat-round yet. There may been casualties already after all. Pre-combat counts into the Space Battle-Step of a tactical action.

2) The defender retains his/her PDSs and Space Dock on the planet. The opposing force has been beaten and there's noone left to storm the castle and tear down the flag on it's flagpole. - It's just defenseless now .

TI is defender-friendly. The defender gets to choose pre-combat order of abilities, has more options for retreats, retains control in draws.

3) This the "Military Foresight" AC. It reads: "[…] If you do not have any Space Docks on the board during the Status Phase, the ship is discarded."

There would need to be a Space Dock on the board you could use to produce units. A blockaded Space Dock is a bad idea to haul your damaged ship to to repair. Sadly, this is not an AC to get a surprise attack at your oppressor.

Aeonim said:

To my understanding, you can play Skilled Retreat in the middle of a big Space Battle, in-between rounds of the battle.

There are these 4 steps, which make a round of space battle:

1. Announce Withdrawals / Retreats
2. Roll combat dice
3. Remove casualties
4. Execute withdrawals / retreats, if announced

So you would play that Action Card after step 4, before step 1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems the most sensible option.

Farro said:

That is correct. Of course, you can also play it before step 1 of the first combat round. It's not a pre-combat ability, it's a regular combat ability that happens before anything else in the combat round it's used. So, any applicable pre-combat abilities would all be used prior to the playing of this card.

The Mentak player also has the option of withholding the card play until after he has survived any pre-combat attacks he might be due, so he doesn't need to waste it only to have his ships blown up before they escape. He still gets the 2TG anyway, I agree that that ability triggers as a pre-combat no matter what happens in the battle itself.